


Minus Worlds And Other Dangers

by silveradept



Series: The Speed-Runner's Guide To The Mushroom Kingdom [2]
Category: Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 09:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13901106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: Mario and Luigi are reunited! Now, if only they could figure out how to escape the infinite dungeon of the Minus World





	1. Minus World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ysavvryl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/gifts).



It would be a few days before Mario could stay awake for more than an hour at a time. Luigi prioritized food before conversation at those times, promising to answer questions when Mario was well enough to remember them.

There were a lot of hugs, too, as Mario would wake up, see his brother, think it was the first time they had seen each other in years, and give him a hug that threatened to bruise ribs. When Mario didn't give him the same hug as before, Luigi thought it was the right time to start talking.

"Parallaxed yourself into a warp pipe, didn't you?" Luigi said, a note of conspiracy in his voice.

"Yep," Mario said, a touch more brightly and a little more slowly that Luigi had remembered. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Luigi said. "It's nothing like anywhere I've been, though. It seems to go on forever, but there's almost nothing here to look at. It reminds me of the desert past the flagpoles, like we've stepped outside the boundaries of the universe."

"Like a negative world," Mario said, slouching a little bit. Luigi caught his brother before he passed out and gently eased him down to the block bed.

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully.

> **Minus World** refers to [any number of liminal spaces that exist orthogonally to the Mushroom Kingdom as we know it](https://emily.st/2014/05/05/through-the-warp-zone/). These spaces are highly dangerous to speedrunners and explorers alike. It is not known how many of these spaces are traversable, and whether there is any method of exit that can reliably free someone from a Minus World once trapped there. [Very few records of Minus World explorations exist](https://confreaks.tv/videos/osbridge2015-through-the-warp-zone-hacking-super-mario-brothers), and those that do should be considered highly speculative.
> 
> There are two currently-known ways to access Minus Worlds as of this writing - [Parallaxing into a known Warp Pipe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3-Dqc2SfKE) and [jumping over a signal flagpole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPGee75oR4g).  
>  \--Chapter 11, "Minus Worlds and Other Dangers"

"So how do we get out?" Mario asked.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't still be here," Luigi said, closing the guidebook and tucking the pen away. "I managed to get out of the desert past the flagpole with a rewind mushroom, but there's something about this particular world that resists easy solutions. The pipe that's here isn't connected to the Warp, so parallaxing doesn't work to hop out. I've looked out over the ocean from the top of the pipe and I don't see anything that looks like an exit. Or even another island."

"And you've looked underneath the water, too."

"Yeah. There are a couple of interesting things down there, but the Bloopers and the Cheep-Cheeps are so thick, not to mention the _spinning flaming columns_ that shouldn't physically exist down there. I can spray them all with fire, but they keep coming. I can't get close enough to see whether or not those pipes somehow have a connection to the Warp."

"I never tried when I was underwater. Too afraid I would drown. And there aren't a whole lot of Power Stars forming underneath the water anyway."

"It's a lot harder to do. Your brain is interested in your continued survival, and that makes it hard to concentrate enough to parallax."

"Can you see the bottom?"

"No, it's pretty deep. And if I went all the way down, and there wasn't anything there, I wouldn't have a way of getting back up."

Mario pounded his fist in frustration. The solution had to be in front of them, but he couldn't think of it. He'd come this far. There had to be a way out.

"Easy, Mario! Don't want to pop one of these bricks accidentally." Luigi exclaimed. "How about this: while we think about it, I'll help you figure out how to parallax without needing a Power Star. We've got all the time in the world, right?"

Mario thought about it, then nodded. It was better than swimming in the ocean and it definitely beat sitting on the island all day.


	2. Invisible Block ?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What seems to have been an impossible problem might just have been an invisible one.

> Mastery of these skills is not to be expected overnight. Diligent practice at the technical aspects will help build the necessary confidence to use them when the situation should arise. They may mean the difference between life and death.  
>  \--Chapter 1, "Speedrunner's Basics"

"Or between freedom and being stuck in a Minus World for months," Mario quipped. "Why are you still working on that?"

"So the next kid who figures this out doesn't end up trapped like us, but can just pop their way out without any trouble."

"You still believe that? You've been trapped here far longer than I have, and yet you still think we can just get out?" Mario shook his head. "I envy your optimism."

Luigi smiled. "You used to be the optimistic one, you know. Dragging me along on these adventures, encouraging me to keep walking, keep stomping, and see what else there is in the kingdom. I guess we're both in this because you keep telling me to keep going. So, I guess it's your fault." Luigi snickered at the realization.

Mario got a look in his eye that promised mischief. "Well, if it's all my fault, then, the you won't mind if I decide I'm king of this pipe top here and that I want to be alone." Mario advanced on Luigi, flexing his hands. 

Luigi put the book away in his waterproof bag and into an overalls pocket before turning to face his brother, a similar mischievous grin on his face. 

He was quite surprised when Mario effortlessly picked him up and threw him off the side of the pipe.

He was even more surprised when his flailing punched a block that he was certain was not there before on the way down.

> The Mushroom Kingdom contains secrets that even the most dedicated speedrunners may not discover until well into their career. Little is known about the presence of **invisible blocks** until they force a runner to quickly rethink their intended plans.
> 
> Invisible blocks can be activated like any other block, and once struck, they will remain visible and usable like any other block. Some other speedrunners will figure out the secret of why the block can be passed through until activated.  
>  \--Chapter 3, "Plumber Parkour Party"

Mario stared.

Luigi stared, still dripping from his bath at the bottom of the pipe.

"That wasn't there," he said. "I've never seen anything like that before."

Mario smiled. "Oh, so I've finally seen something that you haven't? A block like that is the reason why I'm here. Popped up in the middle of a run and made everything all wrong."

"Are there more like it?"

"Probably." Mario squinted as he scanned the area around the block. "Oh, there's one," he said, pointing. 

"I don't see it."

"Look over here," Mario said. "See that slight shimmer, like the light is bending ever so slightly farther out of place, like those invisibility devices on TV shows?"

Luigi followed Mario's point, but he couldn't make out the difference between what was supposed to be normal and what was supposed to be an invisible block. He shrugged.

"Well, that one's pretty far away," Mario said, jumping down to the one visible block. He looked around again.

"There's one right here," he said, pointing almost above his head. "Do you see it?"

Luigi shook his head again.

To prove the point, Mario jumped and punched what should have been air above him, but a block obediently appeared and popped up a coin for Mario to collect. Mario jumped up on to the new block and almost immediately jumped and punched a new part of air, which resolved into another block and coin. Mario pointed up at the block, then punched the air next to it and made another block appear, and another next to that. Mario jumped to to the platform and waved Luigi over.

Getting a good running start, Luigi launched himself off the edge of the pipe, his exhilaration matching Mario's look of terror as he free-fell before sticking the landing and running to the edge of the platform before he stopped. Mario appeared a little later, ready to try and catch him, but Luigi turned around and gave Mario a thumbs up.

"Did you forget that I've been training, too?" he said.


	3. Coin Heavenly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mario and Luigi only have one more question to answer: How do they get down from here?

> **Coin Heaven** is above all of the Mushroom Kingdom, a treasure-filled space that is only accessible by vines drawn straight from Jack and the Beanstalk. Unlike the fables, though, vines to Coin Heaven are contained in otherwise-unremarkable bricks that only reveal their true nature when struck. [There are not many known Coin Heavens in the Mushroom Kingdom at this time](https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros./Coin_Rooms).  
>  \--Chapter 6, "Warp Speed Travel"

They had jumped around most of the skyscape of the Minus World. Luigi still couldn't see the invisible blocks as easily as Mario could, but his superior jumping skills helped them both get across the maze of blocks in the sky. Finally, they'd discovered one with something other than a coin in it, at what was probably the very top of the maze itself. The beanstalk beckoned to them, offering the first possibility of a way out of the Minus World since they had arrived...however long ago it had been.

And now they were climbing something that didn't seem to have an end, just moving ever upward into the sky.

Mario puffed slightly as he kept climbing up the vine.

"Do you think it's possible to have a Minus World that's just an infinitely tall beanstalk?"

"It's possible," Luigi said back. "But I feel like we're asking actual progress here. Some of those clouds seem closer than they were before."

Mario didn't reply. Luigi looked down to make sure Mario wasn't taking a nap on the vine, only to watch his brother rocket past him, riding what appeared to be a solid cloud much higher up on the vine, before jumping back to the vine and then on to, presumably, another cloud.

Luigi occasionally looked down to see if another cloud might also be on the same way, but none seemed to be coming, so he kept climbing.

Progress came much faster after the cloud trip, and in no time at all, Luigi reached the top of the vine, pulling himself into the solid cloud bank where Mario was. Both of them lay, winded, until Mario weakly raised a fist to his brother. Luigi raised his own fist and bumped Mario's, before they both flopped back down for a much-needed nap.

Luigi woke up some time later to see Mario standing on the edge of the cloud, looking a long way down.

"Luigi, come here," Mario said absently, pointing at a castle in the distance. "Do those look like the parapets on Princess Peach's castle?"

Luigi looked at the space where he would expect King Koopa's castle to be, if that was the Mushroom Kingdom Palace, and he saw a black shape that might have been the Koopa castle.

"Maybe," Luigi said.

He didn't expect a bone-crushing hug from Mario at his lack of admission.

"We did it!" Mario told him. "We got out of the Minus World!"

"We still have to get back down," Luigi pointed out.

Mario pointed at the cloud above them. "We can ride the clouds all the way back down. I've done it enough times at this point. Be sure to stuff your pockets with as many coins as possible while you're here. We can make a great life for ourselves back in Brooklyn."

"You want to go back?" Luigi looked shocked.

"Your book made me understand I don't have to live here to be able to save the kingdom on the regular. Now that we're both speedrunners, we can probably just pop in here and there, get it done, get more coins, and go back. We'll never have to work another day in our lives!"

Luigi thought about it.

"I could use a vacation from here," he said.

"Then hop on, and grab every last coin you can," Mario said.

Luigi smiled. He was looking forward to finishing the guide. And who knew? Maybe some day one of the Toads would be inspired to explore by themselves.

> Speedrunning can be anything from a pastime to an obsession. The effort that you put in to finding shortcuts and perfecting your technique will be reflected in your times and abilities, but there are plenty of dangers that still lurk, even for the experienced runner. Every time you run, there always the chance that you'll find a new way into a Minus World or you will end up very far away from your home. If you're not ready for that possibility, you may want to try something else, like artistic fireball art. But if you're ready to take the risk, then the community of speedrunners welcomes you. Read on to see what kind of tricks you can get up to in the Mushroom Kingdom.  
>  \--Introduction, "The Speedrunner's Guide To The Mushroom Kingdom"


End file.
